1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to surgical fixation devices and, more specifically, to medical implants known as suture anchors that are used to attach soft tissue to hard tissue via a strand of suture in order to implement a repair. The following disclosure presents several suture anchor designs that will greatly simplify the attachment step of this repair by eliminating the need to create a knot.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A common surgical procedure is to repair an injury by re-attaching soft tissue to bone. This surgical attachment is required to hold the soft and hard tissues together until the body's natural healing response permanently attaches the two together.
There are many styles of anchors currently on the market. Most require the anchor to be implanted into bone with suture already threaded through an eyelet thereof, the strand of suture to be passed through soft tissue, and then a knot to be tied so that the soft tissue is brought adjacent to the bone for proper healing. The last step, knot tying, is very critical and for many surgeons one of the more difficult steps. This is especially true for the doctor performing the procedure arthroscopically where everything is viewed on a monitor via a camera and most of the work is performed through small diameter cannulas.
Some anchors systems have been released in the past few years that attempt to address the difficult knot tying issue. Though they have created a knotless system many of the methods are cumbersome. A knotless design that is easy and intuitive is required.